Disappointed with KDE 4's performance and other shortcomings, Timothy Pearson continued KDE 3.5 development under the name Trinity. Today the first third major update of the Trinity Desktop Environment is released, providing an alternative upgrade path for KDE users who do not feel comfortable with KDE 4.

It seems that the last releases of the most important DEs in the Linux world (KDE and Gnome) had a lot of criticism. These includes Unity.

If you're referring to recent DE releases (e.g., Gnome 3, KDE 4.7 and Unity) then I don't know where you've been getting your information. KDE 4.7 has for the most part received raving reviews. KDE 4 is all grown up and has been a welcomed refuge for many users fleeing Gnome 3 and Unity. While KDE 4 might have been a mess at its initial few releases (4.0 through 4.3) it has greatly matured over the past two years and is now a paragon of stability and usability. I suggest you give KDE 4.7 a serious look if you're seeking shelter from Gnome 3 and Unity, at least until these latter two DE's mature.

"It seems that the last releases of the most important DEs in the Linux world (KDE and Gnome) had a lot of criticism. These includes Unity.

If you're referring to recent DE releases (e.g., Gnome 3, KDE 4.7 and Unity) then I don't know where you've been getting your information. " It's not an information, it is an impression, and, you know, impressions are subjective.

A lot of people's impressions are driven by what they read, they don't bother to form their own impressions.

As the grandparent poster (cmost) said:

KDE 4.7 has for the most part received raving reviews. KDE 4 is all grown up and has been a welcomed refuge for many users fleeing Gnome 3 and Unity. While KDE 4 might have been a mess at its initial few releases (4.0 through 4.3) it has greatly matured over the past two years and is now a paragon of stability and usability.

This is the reality.

However, there is a huge vested interest in disparaging KDE, and KDE4 in particular. You will find a lot of postings on the Internet disparaging KDE4. Rarely is there any actual reason given, sometimes reasons are given that are the opposite of the actual situation (such as feigned dislike of KDE menus), and often there is a vast amount of misinformation.

I have even read quite a few articles (from people who allegedly support Linux on the desktop) which bemoan the situation with GNOME and Unity, ponder the demise of Linux on the desktop because of that situation, and yet they utterly ignore KDE. Go figure.

Disparaging of KDE4 appears to be, for the most part, either astroturfing (paid-for opinion pieces pretending to be grass roots opinions) or coming from misinformed fanboys of other desktops.

The fact that there are indeed some Linux systems on which the underlying OpenGL graphics stack brings down KDE's kwin doesn't help at all. It gives the haters somewhere to start.